Relocation - advice on nice towns in East or West Midlands or East Anglia

[2babyblues]

We are thinking of locating somewhere in the middle of the country. We are quite flexible where as my husband can locate anywhere really with his job and I work from home while looking after our children. It is a bit of a compromise as I am from the South and my husband is from the north and we want to live somewhere where we can see both our families at the weekend. We are also hoping to be able to afford to live in a nicer area as it is really expensive where we live and are still living in a really grotty part of town. Our friends seem to be all over the place now so we are not to worried where we are although I will miss the mummy friends I have made where we live now.
The only places that I really know that I like the look of are Stamford near Peterborough or Warwick area (miles apart I know). Ideally, I would like to live in a nice town with lots of stuff going on but not too big, preferably with a train link and definitely good state schools. We could probably afford around 200k for a family house.
I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Warwick.
Kenilworth (lovely)
Lichfield

I would say that if you want good road & rail links you don't want to be any further East of Peterborough. It is at least an hour from there to get you to a motorway (that gets you anywhere).

I used to live in Peterborough area. Now live in East mids. East mids is definately more accessible. Stamford is nice though - and there are some nice villages round there too. Not particularly cheap though but probably within your budget.

You could consider the Melton Mowbray area. DOn't know much about where else to look.

About how big a place are you thinking of? There was a thread recently about Lichfield.

We needed to be well connected and chose our target area based on the road atlas (ending up in the M42/M6/M1 triangle). There's a good reason why we are surrounded by distribution centres!

The more historic towns are nice and tend to have at least one good school. Stratford, Leamington, Lichfield, Worcester.

Depends how far west you would like to go in the west mids. You could get a fab house for that price in staffs or shropshire to the west of Birmingham

Leamington is lovely

I know it's a city really but I do like Nottingham as well.

Thanks for all your messages, sorry should have mentioned we would need to be within half and hour of A1 or M1 really.

Herbietea - regarding the house in Stamford, it's really funny that is one of the ones I was looking at on rightmove!!! We haven't really looked beyond rightmove so far! I have friends near Stamford that we stayed with and I couldn't believe how lovely it is around there and how much more you get for your money than you do where we live.

A mini Stamford near Peterborough is Oundle.Has very good schools and links that you can commute easily from.Ask your Stamford friends as they will know it.
For £200k would only get a 3 bed house but being a smaller town can walk into the town and schools.

Cambridge? I'm not sure if this was an option, but we are right near the M11, schools all pretty good and at the moment you could just about get a three bed for £200K. The countryside is lovely all around, Saffron Walden is a gorgeous place 12 miles away.

Should I be an estate agent??

I like living in Warwick. House prices are not too crazy either.

You could think about Newark on Trent - further up the A1 from Stamford and considerably cheaper, nearly if not quite as nice, and good for connections north. Lovely and very cheap property within walking distance of town centre (or pretty, slightly more expensive villages if you don't mind being car dependent) but you do need to be careful about primary catchment areas (not so good for secondary - lots of people go out of town then).

Rugby and Leamington are very nice. Leamington is pricier. Warwick is a bit on the small side and quiet outside of tourist season.

cambridge (although ts a bit on the flat side)

Hello,

Thanks so much for all your ideas, will have a look into all the places. We are thinking of taking a week over the summer camping that way and looking around.

Hi there
I need advice we currently live in west lancashire and originally from South Africa.
We are having to relocate to West Sussex, Chichester area and so needed advice on primary schools and decent areas as am a little stressed as don't know where to start.
Any advice is welcome.

Hi there

I am a mum of 2 boys, Seven and Two and we are originally from South African and living in West Lancashire for 2 yrs and now having to relocate to Chichester area.
I don't know where to start looking as I want to find a school that has an excellent ofsted report but not a private school as such and also want to be in a nice area where there are nice friendly people. Is there anyone who can offer some good advice?

many thanks

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Try starting a new thread as the title of this one won't attract comments on the area you are moving to.

How about Oakham, next to Rutland Water? It's 10 miles east of Stamford and is just off the A1. We're about to move there and I visited the town for the first time on Friday and it's lovely . We're relocating back to the UK after being away for a few years and one of the reasons we chose Oakham is because it has excellent state schools. It also has a train station. I'm really looking forward to moving there!

Oh just realised this thread is ancient!! Sorry can't help on Sussex!